Loki’s Theft of Idun’s Apples

At a Glance

• Central figures: Loki, the trickster god of Asgard; Idun, goddess and keeper of the Golden Apples; and Thjazi, a frost giant who travels in the form of an eagle.
• Setting: Asgard, Midgard, and Jotunheim - the realm of the giants; the story comes from Norse tradition preserved in the Prose Edda and the skaldic poem Haustlong.
• The turn: Loki, seized mid-air by Thjazi and too frightened to refuse, swears an oath to deliver Idun and her apples to the giant’s hall.
• The outcome: Idun is stolen, the gods of Asgard begin to age and weaken, and Loki is forced to retrieve her - killing Thjazi in the process.
• The legacy: Thjazi was killed, but his daughter Skadi came to Asgard demanding compensation, setting in motion a settlement between the gods and the giants that the original story leaves unresolved.

Loki did not plan the theft. He was hungry, then frightened, then trapped by his own oath - and that is how Asgard nearly fell.

It began with a failed meal in Midgard. Odin, Loki, and Hoenir were traveling through the world of men when they found an ox and built a fire to roast it. The meat would not cook. No matter how long they kept it over the flame, it stayed raw. A voice came from above, unhurried and amused.

Thjazi was waiting in a tree overhead, wearing the shape of an eagle. He offered to fix the fire. The gods agreed. He fixed it, then swept down and took nearly all the meat for himself - the choicest parts, most of it. Loki struck him with a staff. The moment the staff connected, it stuck fast. Thjazi took to the sky with Loki dangling below him, dragged through treetops, too high to let go.

Loki’s Oath to Thjazi

Thjazi flew until Loki’s arms were ready to give out. When Loki finally begged to be released, Thjazi set his price: bring Idun out of Asgard, and bring her apples with her.

Loki swore it. He had no other choice - or told himself he didn’t.

Back in Asgard, he kept quiet. The oath sat with him. Idun carried a basket of golden apples that the gods ate to stay young. Without them, even Odin aged. Even Thor. The apples were not decoration; they were the difference between a god and a corpse. Loki knew this. He waited anyway, and then he moved.

The Luring of Idun

He found Idun and told her he had seen something remarkable in Midgard - a tree bearing apples that might surpass her own. She should come and look, he said. Bring yours to compare.

Idun believed him. She took her basket and followed Loki past the walls of Asgard. The shadow came immediately. Thjazi dropped from the sky in eagle form, seized Idun in his talons, and carried her to Jotunheim. The basket went with her.

In Asgard, the apples that remained began to dry. The gods noticed within days.

The Gods Grow Old

Thor’s arms went weak. He could lift Mjolnir, but not easily, and not for long. Odin’s sight clouded. Freya’s brightness dimmed. They gathered in Odin’s hall, old before their time, looking at one another across the long table.

Loki had been the last to see Idun. Every eye in the hall turned to him.

He could not hold the gazes. He confessed - Thjazi had grabbed him, he’d had no choice, the oath had been forced - but he could get her back. He said this quickly. The gods listened.

Their fury was real, but so was their need. They let him go.

The Rescue

Loki borrowed Freyja’s falcon cloak. Wearing it, he flew - small and fast and feathered - all the way to Jotunheim. Thjazi was out on the sea when Loki arrived. Idun was alone.

Loki used a spell to change her into a nut, tucked her in his talons, and turned back toward Asgard at full speed.

Thjazi came home to an empty hall. He put on his eagle shape and went after them.

The gods were watching from the walls. They saw the falcon coming, and behind it, far too close, the eagle with a giant’s wingspan bearing down fast. They understood what needed to happen. They built pyres at the gates - piles of wood shavings and fuel, stacked high - and waited.

Loki crossed the wall. The gods lit the fires.

Thjazi could not pull up in time. His wings caught. He came down burning, hit the ground inside Asgard, and did not get up. The gods were on him before he could rise, and they killed him there at the gate.

Idun Restored

Loki set the nut down. Idun returned to her own shape, the basket in her hands. She gave the gods her apples, and they ate, and the aging stopped. Odin’s sight cleared. Thor straightened. The color came back.

Loki had delivered the crisis and undone it, which was the shape of things with him - though the gods marked the first part as carefully as the second. His oath to Thjazi had been coerced, but his lie to Idun had not. He had walked her out of Asgard himself.

Thjazi was dead in the yard, his wings still smoking. His daughter Skadi would come later, armored, demanding a reckoning - but that is another story. For now the apples were back in Idun’s hands, and Asgard held, and the gods sat in the hall looking exactly as old as they always had: ageless, wary, and still breathing.